Hamlet
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Shakespeares Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlets dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values.
An identity crisis can be defined as a psychosocial state or condition of disorientation and role confusion occurring especially in adolescents as a result of conflicting internal and external experiences, pressures, and expectations and often producing acute anxiety. (www.dictionary.com) It was apparent that Hamlet did indeed have an identity crisis because of his conflicting internal and external experiences and the pressures and expectations from those in the Royal Court of Denmark. He endures conflicting internal and external experiences such as the ghost of his father requesting him to exact revenge on Claudius and in doing so contradict all of the morals he has formed. Pressures to accept the dubious marriage of his mother to his uncle, pressure to accept Claudius as the new king and expectations from the court to be emotionally strong in spite of his fathers demise and from the ghost of his father to avenge his death by killing Claudius all challenge Hamlets strength of self. His anxiety is caused as a result of these external pressures.
Hamlet lives in a country of different worlds. At the time, Denmark was in a state of transition between three metaphysical worlds; the heroic world, where a mans honour was foremost, killing was not accepted but expected, might was power, the Machiavellian world, an amoral world where politics and mind games were employed ruthlessly, the ends justified the means, and the Christian world of love and forgiveness. Hamlet was a Christian living in a dying Heroic world which was succumbing to the Machiavellian world. Hamlets father, King Hamlet, belonged to the heroic world, and so for him revenge was of the utmost importance, shown by the fact that “but two months” (1:2, 136) after his death he returned to instruct Hamlet to avenge his murder. Hamlets disgust at his mothers marriage to his uncle before “the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her galled eyes” (1:2,154-155), and his uncles speedy ascendancy to the throne clouds his judgement enough so that he accepts and vows to put into action his fathers wishes. After he has had time to think, Hamlet realises what must be done, he must murder his uncle. He has no qualms about the target of the act but the fact that he belongs to the Christian world means that to appease his fathers ghost he must move to the heroic world, thus contradicting the morals and teachings of his Christian upbringing.
Further, in order to discover the truth about Claudius supposed crimes, Hamlet slips into the Machiavellian world and produces a play for the court. The play is a re-enactment of the murder of his father so that when Claudius saw the murder scene he would hopefully react to it in some way, and in doing so prove his implication in King Hamlets death. Secondly, Hamlet had to fall again to the Machiavellian world by deceiving Guildenstern and Rozencrantz, which inevitably meant their demise so as to save himself from Claudius plan.
Hamlet has been described as a barbarian by some scholars because of the way he treats women. His hatred for women was launched by his mothers incestuous and hasty marriage to his uncle, Claudius. His mothers behaviour is incomprehensible to Hamlets belief system that ironically, she helped to create. Consequently, Hamlet lost all respect for women in general and felt alone in the world, for the one last thing he had to love, he now despised Ophelia.
It was not Ophelia herself that Hamlet despised, rather the fact she was a woman, and that, from his point of view, meant she was the lowest form of human being.
“If thou dost marry, Ill give thee this plague
for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a
nunnery, go; and quickly, too.” (3: 1, 136-141)
His abominable treatment of Ophelia, the woman he supposedly loved as “forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love”(5:1, 279-280), merely consolidates his hatred for women. These contradicting emotions, love for Ophelia and hatred of women, would have Hamlet in a state of confusion about his treatment of her. Perhaps this show of disgust towards Ophelia is another showing of his antic disposition, real or feigned. His mention of the nunnery could be a plea for Ophelia to escape the tragedy he feels is approaching. The confusion caused by his conflicting emotions towards Ophelia is symptomatic of a crisis in his nature.
This crisis became apparent in the first act,when Hamlet tells Horatio that he will “put an antic disposition on.” At first his madness is clearly feigned as he would snap back to reality and then to madness again very quickly as easily, but towards the end of the play, his heightened emotional state leaves a blurry line between his feigned madness and his sane actions. Most of the other characters cannot tell whether he is mad or not, but some give their thoughts on the matter. Polonius is of the opinion that it is unrequited love that drives Hamlet insane, Gertrude thinks that is was the untimely death of King Hamlet and her hasty marriage, Guildenstern and Rozencrantz think that ambition and frustration drive Hamlet to insanity and Ophelia, who becomes mad herself, thinks that Hamlets lunacy is just pure madness. Claudius is the closest of all the characters as to the cause of Hamlets insanity, that is, if he is actually insane. He thinks that Hamlets madness is caused by deep melancholy.
Ever since the death of his father, Hamlet has been deep in sorrow. He has become greatly introspective and muses on his life. Even before the complication of his dead fathers request, Hamlets sorrow at his loss is so great that he wishes his “too too solid flesh would melt” (1:2, 129), but only because the “Everlasting (had) fixd his cannon gainst self-slaughter”(1: 2, 131-132). He is disenchanted with the world in which “things rank and gross in nature possess it merely” (1:2 136-137). When he